Steve Crompton

All of us are influenced by people drifting into our lives and sometimes we find ourselves close to people that we wouldn’t have met if life had been different.

Suddenly finding yourself in a wheelchair tends to do that and I’m proud to say that Steve was one of the people that made a real difference to my life and my MUDSA colleagues who also knew him well would echo the same sentiment.

steve-crompton-9Steve Crompton was an avid United fan from the cradle like most of us. He started coming to games in a wheelchair when MS finally knocked him off his feet but he wasn’t the kind of person to let that get in his way.

He loved computers as much as he loved football and he helped me out of many a fix… needless to say he was an obvious choice to enlist onto the MUDSA committee many years ago when we needed those talents on board. Steve was the person that should be marked down in history as the writer of the first disabled supporters association’s website and at moments like this I wish I’d kept the home page archived — you’d be surprised at how good it was, even by today’s standards!

In ‘Ups ‘n Downs’ I refer to a story about Steve and it relates to our trip to Barcelona in ’99. It’s difficult to verify but I would bet that MUDSA was the first disabled supporters’ organisation to charter its own aircraft to take disabled fans abroad as we did to Barcelona. We all gathered at Manchester Airport, went down one of the old piers passing one large aircraft after another and then there appeared to be a gap.  We eventually reached the gap which wasn’t a gap at all… in between two giant aircraft was sitting our little propellered plane which one person referred to as ‘something out of a Kinder Surprise’. By comparison, it wasn’t a lot better than a First World War bi-plane but we all climbed aboard, including Steve who was an anxious flier and started to get out of breath, but little did we know he was in the early stages of having a heart attack! He insisted he was OK and we took to the air but concern grew, ending in a steep dive down to land to get Steve into the nearest ambulance and off to Stanstead hospital. Needless to say Steve didn’t make it to Barcelona but he was alive.

I suppose, on reflection, this was the start of Steve beginning to suffer more with his MS but I mention it because it never once phased him and he was back up and raring to go as soon as he was able. He went through an ordeal that none of us would want to witness and would never wish to see the likes of again, but he never complained once.

In this way Steve embodied the MUDSA motto ‘Spirit, Strength, Courage’.

On behalf of the committee and all MUDSA members, I’d like to express my sincere condolences to Steve’s wife, Margaret, sons Philip and Richard, his family, friends and support team. A true gent has been lost but will never be forgotten.